1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a picture and audio recording apparatus and a hard disk recorder for recording picture information of a TV program or the like on a recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art
As the picture and audio recording apparatus for a use of recording a TV program at home, there are a video cassette recorder, an optical disc apparatus such as a DVD recorder and a hard disk recorder. There is also a multiple function apparatus that is equipped with the functions thereof built in a single enclosure, e.g., an optical disc apparatus with an integrated hard disk drive.
In particular, a picture and audio recording apparatus equipped with a large capacity recording medium such as a hard disk is used for recording broadcasting programs of one or more channels continuously by taking advantage of its large capacity. In this way, a user can watch only desired programs among recorded programs without missing the desired programs. However, since a lot of undesired programs are stored on the recording medium, there may be not enough free space on it. Therefore, it is necessary to record efficiently.
For example, JP-A-2005-51493 discloses an automatic erasing mode in which if there is a program recorded on the hard disk drive having the same title as a program to be watched from that time, the recorded program is automatically erased.
In addition, JP-A-2004-342272 discloses an information recording apparatus that records only one of a plurality of information sources if they have the same contents and even if file names of them are not the same.
In addition, JP-A-2004-128779 discloses a recording apparatus that overwrites contents if the same classification code is added to them, so that only most newly recorded contents are saved in a hard disk.
According to the technique disclosed in JP-A-2005-51493, a program that has little possibility of being watched is removed from the hard disk. However, there is a case where news programs or the like may have the same title and different contents, so they should not be erased.
In addition, according to the technique disclosed in JP-A-2004-342272, usability of picture data collected by the user may be improved. However, the function of the information recording apparatus does not work unless the user does registration and selection actively.
In addition, in a case of the technique disclosed in JP-A-2004-128779, the function is integrated with a broadcasting system, support of a broadcasting station is necessary.
In this way, there is a risk of erasing a necessary data when a user intends to erase an unnecessary data by automatic operation. On the other hand, there is a problem that erasing unnecessary data manually takes time and efforts with bad usability.